Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras: Alma

Spanish flamenco dancer Sara Baras presents her latest show, “Alma,” a performance where she brings together flamenco and bolero rhythms.

Sara Baras sits among the most renowned figures of the art of flamenco. The internationally acclaimed dancer, choreographer, and superstar of the flamenco world returns to DC after her performance at the 2015 IBERIAN SUITE: global arts remix festival.

Alma

• On Wednesday, March 29 at 8 pm.
• On Thursday, March 30 at 8 pm.

Alma is an enormous embrace, where flamenco embraces the bolero, and the bolero allows itself to be embraced by flamenco, to become a seguiriya, soleá, caña, garrotín, bulería… forms, colors and sensuality inexorably clinging in an unexpected turn, cadence turned into a twist, love into pieces […] and magic in the hands and destiny in the feet. Alma is a constant wink, an adventure in the memories of melodies that have always accompanied us.

Alma is a creation of a singular brand, of a way of understanding life and taking it to the beat, of composing everything around a way of contemplating the world from totally new choreographies and music adapted to the most traditional flamenco palos. Dance, music, costumes, lights, textures… a taste of the authentic in the present time. Flamencos with bolero soul.

—Sara Baras

About Sara Baras

Born in San Fernando (Cádiz, Spain) in 1971, Sara Pereyra Baras is a dancer, choreographer, actress and theater director, considered to be one of the greatest flamenco dancers of the past few decades. She began her dance studies in the school run by her mother, Concha Baras, and then she joined the company Los Niños de la Tertulia Flamenca.

When she was 14, she joined Manuel Morao’s company, winning TVE’s Gente Joven Award. After performing in Seville at Expo ’92, Paris, Lyon and New York, she was given the Madroño Flamenco Award for Best Artist of the Year in Montellano, Seville.

In 1994, she performed with flamenco singer Enrique Morente, went on tour with Paco Peña’s company, and participated in the Flamenco Biennial in Seville. In 1997, she established her own flamenco company, the Sara Baras Flamenco Ballet, which made its debut at the 37th Cante de las Minas National Festival. Her most celebrated productions include Juana la Loca (winner of three Max Awards), Mariana Pineda, Medusa and Sombras.

Baras holds several awards such as the National Dance Award (2003), the Gold Medal from Andalusia (2004) and the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts (2009).